The United Nations world food programme (WFP) has warned that the shrinking humanitarian assistance across the northern states is worsening Nigeria’s food security crisis faster than previously anticipated.
According to the WFP, the humanitarian and food security situation has been compounded by ongoing access issues and extreme funding shortfalls that are making it increasingly difficult to reach vulnerable populations in conflict areas.
The suspension of food assistance in some camps due to the funding shortfalls has triggered a deeply alarming escalation in exploitation and gender-based harm that is particularly impacting women and children.
Accordingly, the WFP will require $89 million over the next six months to continue food and nutrition assistance, and essential logistics support across northern Nigeria before hunger deepens further, more people are displaced and instability spreads across the region.
The WFP added that the conflict situation in some northern states is driving hunger to levels not seen in almost a decade, particularly the northeast. “What concerns us most is how this crisis is expanding.
